ELCA NEWS SERVICE

April 22, 2009  

Lutheran College Commencement Speaker to Honor Alumna Imprisoned in Iran
09-94-SH

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The announcement was one a Minnesota
Lutheran college hoped never to make. Its May 3 commencement
speaker is being replaced due to her spying conviction and
eight-year prison sentence by an Iranian revolutionary court.
     In a show of support for alumna Roxana Saberi, an
American-born journalist, leaders of Concordia College,
Moorhead, Minn., tapped her mentor to speak. Veteran journalist
Margo Melnicove will pay tribute to Saberi in an address
titled "Lessons Learned from a Concordia College Grad."
     "We are still hopeful that Roxana will be able to come
home very soon," said Dr. Pamela Jolicoeur, the school's
president. "We would be thrilled to welcome her back to
campus as our special guest."
     Saberi, 31, a former Miss North Dakota, grew up in Fargo
with her Iranian father and Japanese mother. She's a 1997
graduate of Concordia, one of 28 universities and colleges
of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
     She moved to Iran six years ago, working as a freelance
journalist for National Public Radio (NPR), the BBC and
others. Melnicove, who teaches at Boston's Brandeis
University, mentored Saberi through NPR's Diversity
Initiative.
     Iranian authorities arrested Saberi in January, saying
her press credentials had been revoked three years ago. Even
after the arrest, Concordia College held out hope that she'd
be released by commencement. She'd been booked as a speaker
months earlier.
     "The news of Roxana's conviction is devastating,"
Jolicouer said after the April 18 ruling by an Iranian
revolutionary court. The case is under appeal.
     In an interview with NPR, Saberi's father said Iranian
officials coerced his daughter into making false statements
in exchange for her freedom. But after realizing she'd been
"tricked," she repeatedly told officials the statements
were false, her father said.
     U.S. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton maintain Saberi's innocence. The Rev. Mark
S. Hanson, ELCA presiding bishop, called for her release in
an April 9 letter to Iran's ambassador to the United Nations.
     They join a long list of politicians, journalists,
religious leaders and others urging her release.
     "Roxana is a remarkable young woman who has quickly
distinguished herself as the type of globally engaged citizen
we desire all of our graduates to be," Concordia's Jolicouer
said. "We think having her mentor speak is a fitting way
to honor the class of 2009."
- - - 
     Information about Concordia College is at
http://www.cord.edu/ on the Internet. 

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